DNA Links Man Arrested in String of Sexual Assaults to 1996 Killing of Fresno College Student

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Nick Duane Stane is seen in an undated photo provided by the Visalia Police Department.

A man arrested in a string of sexual assaults in Central California has been named a suspect in the rape and killing of a college student 23 years ago.

Authorities in Fresno said Friday that they linked Nick Duane Stane, 52, to the slaying of Debbie Dorian after making a DNA match based on genetic genealogy.

The news came as Stane pleaded not guilty in Tulare County court to a series of attacks on young women in Visalia from 1999 to 2002. He was ordered held without bail.

The Fresno Bee reports investigators linked DNA evidence collected in the sexual assaults in Visalia to Dorian’s killing in her Fresno apartment in 1996. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer praised two detectives who continued looking for her killer after they retired.